The reeds should still be up into at least mid-October. Danbury Greenway's reeds last that long, and Danbury is one growing zone north of Ridgewood. If this fall is really hot like predicted, they'll last longer. They wouldn't be as full or as tall as summer, but they'd be up. Then again, NJ doesn't need to happen this year, it could be placed into next year's lineup.

Meeting every month might be difficult to pull-off. We are as far-flung as ever.

marauder wrote:You have to explain things in terms that kids will understand, like videogames^ That's how I got Sam to stop using piston pumpers

I am not available October 15 and November 19th as one of the classes I am taking this semester requires that I take exams those weekends. I will also be busy November 12 and 13 as I have a LEGO train display. Under no circumstances can I reschedule the exams, and I'd rather not bail on the LEGO thing as it is the only display I can make for months (the other displays being same days as those exams).

It is too bad Ridgewood isn't closer to Atlantic City, my aunt has a beach house in Ventnor that we could stay at.

As for scouting areas around here, I still really want to give Blockhouse Point another go, probably soon, before the underbrush dies out. Might be able to check out Gathland State park too, as I agree it looks quite nice, but that is a much longer trip. Another possibility for a meetup area is my uncle's farmhouse in Unionville, VA. The underbrush is the super thick unpassable kind in the summer, but it might work in the winter if most of it dies out. The bonus being that we could also sleep there. As for portables, of the ones we explored, there was only one other school that would be at all worth while. There were some in Virginia that we only looked at on google maps - more things to scout!

I will have to see how much I can do, it is difficult to think about any meetups right now, as I am still getting used to the workload from taking three classes. I will probably have a better handle on things in another week and can do some scouting around here.

"If you are wet at the end of a water war, you are doing it wrong"
Van: "What happened?" SEAL: "Scott Happened"
Alex: "But the stream is cold." Me: "It's fine, my feet really hurt, now they're numb!"

Even if we don't do monthly meetups, it would still probably be a good idea to get together more often. This year has been quite dead compared to others. Soakemore has been the only community get-together so far, right? I get that people have responsibilities and stuff, but I'm pretty sure it was like that before as well, and we still had a good amount of activity.

Also, kinda-sorta off topic, but there is going to be a solar eclipse visible in the western tip of NC and a good chunk of SC, in the afternoon of August 21st next year. Would be pretty sweet to hold an event around that. Maybe even have a battle during the eclipse, although it will only last for like two and a half minutes. I really want to see a solar eclipse, and the next one that occurs nearby isn't until like 2024 or something.

SEAL wrote:Also, kinda-sorta off topic, but there is going to be a solar eclipse visible in the western tip of NC and a good chunk of SC, in the afternoon of August 21st next year. Would be pretty sweet to hold an event around that. Maybe even have a battle during the eclipse, although it will only last for like two and a half minutes. I really want to see a solar eclipse, and the next one that occurs nearby isn't until like 2024 or something.

Well, we certainly have enough notice to plan something. I know the Carolinas pretty well. We could go to a campground somewhere. I know of a few good ones, but I'm not sure how they're suited to water warfare, I'll have to go back and look.

People did have constraints before, but I think this year it's more serious. I wasn't married until Spring '13. For a little stretch I didn't have as many Army demands. I'm working an hour and a half away for my civilian job, and my Army job is 5 hours away from that. So, right now, I need to fix that, because that's not good in any aspect. The Tretels weren't in Texas/California. Scott's class schedule wasn't as intense? Keith wasn't playing college ball. Rob's agoraphobia wasn't acting up as much.

That doesn't mean I don't want to meet up every month, or close to that, I do. We just have to decide that if only 4-5 of us can get together that it's still worth it.

With that in mind, let's try to get some definite on the Maryland trip. I will talk to Tiffany. Everyone else, let's see if we can get some commits. Baltimore might be the best bet, since it increases the likelihood that Nick and Black 6 can come. We wouldn't actually play in Bmore, but we would meet up and go somewhere nearby.

Nick was going to teach me ARCGIS and we were going to hang out in Baltimore at his place, but I would love to see the rest of y'all too.

This, of course, also depends on my job situation. I'm applying/interviewing for closer employment, and sometimes with new jobs they don't let you take time off until after a few months. But I think it should be fine.

I'm definitely going to be back in Maryland for most of December, but I don't know exactly when I'll get there. It looks like the one final I'll have is going to be re-scheduled, so I don't know when it will be. Still, I should be in Maryland from December 15 to 31 at least.

I'll be working near Baltimore this summer and would be interested in running at least one war near there. I probably can't do anything on Friday due to work, but Saturday and Sunday should be good. I hope to spend at least a week at my parents' before my job this summer working on a new homemade water gun, so that gun may debut at this war.

Let's avoid the weekend of Aug. 5 as that's when the Nerf Apocalypse war is scheduled this year. The weekends of June 24 and July 1 are also out for me. There also is a conference I'd like to attend from June 2-4, but I have tentatively decided against attending as I don't think I can afford it, and I won't be able to attend it all.

Really glad to hear it. I'll try to do at least 2 wars if you all could make them. Now we need a venue...

I just emailed Nick about what neighborhoods I should consider living in this summer. I included a link to this thread so he could give some feedback on the dates. He might have some ideas about venue too.

Black Six lives nearby too. We should figure out who else is in the area and see what they think about the dates and a venue.

I'm also thinking about trying to get some Nerfers involved to increase attendance and maybe recruit interesting folks to the hobby. I've had no success at this before, but it's worth a shot.

I've been busy the past few weeks wrapping up my semester and preparing for my summer internship, which starts this Thursday. This weekend I'll start looking through parks around Baltimore. Harford and Baltimore counties probably would be best. If anyone has the time to look online to help me out, I'd be appreciative.

I am going to be in Herdon, VA around the time frame of Jan 7-14 to attend Awesome Games Done Quick. I'm still working out a lot of details, but will likely be looking to wring together a Nerf/water war or see if Scott or whoever else can host. The logistics will take some time to work out.

SSCBen wrote:Maybe not in a water war as I don't see the point of winter wars, but I might go anyway.

Man this guy! Having fought in sub-freezing conditions before, I can say that I've still gotten sweaty just from all the running around. It's really not as bad as you'd think. The only bad part is that there isn't much vegetation, so you'd have to stick to more urban battlefields or places that still retain some kind of concealment.

I might be down for some kinda battle up there (feels weird to say "up there", haha). Not interested in nerf, but a Frozen Fury-type event with epic abandoned buildings would certainly pique my interest.